When I was younger, I was a bit of a feisty fighter type of guy. That's something my father told me as I was becoming a man: You don't go picking fights, but you don't run from any of them. And I was more afraid of my father than anybody else I had to fight.

I don't condone myself being like that—I just love to be a happy, positive person—but if I feel like they're disrespecting me, I'ma let them know, and I'm not the type to argue.

I've blocked some of the greats, some of the Hall of Famers. But Yao Ming—I was just in the right place at the right time. I was in help defense, and I went to go jump and block it, and I was like, Either he's going to get blocked, or I'm going to get dunked on. So I rolled the dice, and I ended up winning.

Taller guys don't think as fast on the fly, like shorter guys because everything that we do comes to us faster because we're moving so fast, and we've got to duck the trees.

My mom is probably the only person shorter than me that I'm scared of. Still to this day. She's like five-two, maybe. I've seen my mother struggling, everything that she did to raise me and my brothers and my sisters, and I know the anger that she went through. And she suppressed it. And I've seen some of it, and some of it I haven't seen. She gave me a punch in the face one time, almost broke my nose, had me leaking.

I know if I was taller—the Deron Williams height, or Chris Paul, or John Wall—if I was any one of them, their height, I probably would've already had a max deal. So when it comes to a contract year, I wish I could grow to be six-foot, and after I get my contract I could go back to five-nine. That'd be awesome.